The histone deacetylase inhibitor trichostatin A induces cell cycle arrest and rapid upregulation of gadd45β in LS174T human colon cancer cells

Abstract

Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors are considered as promising therapeutic agents against several malignant diseases because they inhibit cancer cell proliferation. The stress sensor genes of the growth arrest and DNA damage-inducible protein (gadd45) family exhibit disordered expression in several types of malignant diseases and are thus a novel target for cancer therapy. However, there have been only few investigations of whether HDAC inhibitors affect the expression of gadd45 genes. We examined the effects of a HDAC inhibitor, trichostatin A (TSA), on the time-dependent expression of gadd45 genes in the human colon cancer cell line LS174T. Addition of TSA to LS174T cells induced inhibition of cell proliferation by arresting the cell cycle. We found that TSA treatment of LS174T cells induced rapid upregulation of gadd45β mRNA expression within 15 min, reaching a peak level at 3 h. Although the time-dependent expression pattern of gadd45β mRNA was similar to that of gadd45β mRNA, the peak level of gadd45β was lower than that of gadd45β. TSA treatment also upregulated the mRNA level of p21Waf1/Cip1, a prolif- eration inhibitor, after 3 h, but downregulated the mRNA levels of cyclin D1, a proliferation inducer, after 3 h, and of c-Myc after 1 h. TSA treatment induced a certain level of apoptosis, but the mRNA level of p53, a potent apoptosis inducer, was down-regulated after 3 h. These results suggest that the up-regulation of p21Waf1/Cip1 and apoptosis was independent of p53 and that the early upregulation of gadd45β gene, which precedes the upregulation of p21Waf1/Cip1 and the downregulation of cyclin D1, are important in TSA-treated LS174T cells.